John T. Todorich – 10/8/04

This page was last updated on October 8, 2004.

We need a more honest leader; John T. Todorich; Beaver County Times; October 8, 2004.

This is Mr. Todorich’s second anti-Bush letter in four days. He calls President Bush a liar, but the facts show this description better fits Mr. Todorich.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“In 2001, the terrorists did issue a plan, but our president decided to take a long vacation and ignored the terrorists’ threats.”

[RWC] If Mr. Todorich is referring to 9/11 when he wrote, “the terrorists did issue a plan” in 2001, he is several years late. Forensic intelligence told us the planning began in the mid to late 1990’s. The plan was well into the execution phase by 2001.

When he wrote, “but our president decided to take a long vacation,” Mr. Todorich shows he doesn’t know much about presidential “vacations.” All presidential vacations are working vacations. For example, even when on vacation, President Bush still conducts his early morning national security briefing, either on site at the vacation location or via videoconference. In truth, there isn’t much difference between vacation and non-vacation for presidents except they are not in Washington, DC. This is true for all presidents.

Regarding “our president … ignored the terrorists’ threats,” here’s how I responded to State Rep. Frank LaGrotta (D-10) when he made a similarly foolish comment. “Your complaint about President Bush living a life -- as in playing with his dog -- in the month prior to 9/11 is as silly as Republican activists were when they made fun of the way Sen. Kerry ordered and ate a Philly cheesesteak. Even if President Bush did have actionable intelligence, which all evidence gathered so far shows he didn’t, did you expect him personally to track down the terrorists? Was he to stay holed up in the White House doing exactly what terrorists want? Why didn’t Clinton stop the first WTC bombing? After all, he had been in office for over a month! What was he thinking taking jogs thorough the park with Secret Service agents in tow when he should have been personally combing the streets of New York and New Jersey for the bombers? <g> Ignoring his polio for a second, why wasn’t President Roosevelt flying a fighter in the skies over Pearl Harbor on 12/7/41? Did he dare live a life during the month prior to the Japanese attack? Was FDR responsible for Pearl Harbor?”

“He told us that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.”

[RWC] Yes he did. So did the U.S. intelligence community, the international intelligence community, the United Nations, John Kerry, John Edwards, et cetera. Sens. Kerry and Edwards, as former and current members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, saw the same intelligence reports as President Bush. When he met with the President of Egypt and the King of Jordan shortly before the Iraq War, both men told Gen. Tommy Franks that Iraq had WMD and Saddam Hussein would use them.

If President Bush had claimed Iraq had no WMD, he would have been mocked for ignoring the consensus of the worldwide intelligence community.

“He also stated that the Iraqi leaders would pay for the threat they imposed on his father.”

[RWC] The anti-Bush crowd promotes this idea in an effort to make the Iraq War appear to be nothing more than revenge. While I’m sure most sons would be a tad peeved at the guy who tried to kill their father, I couldn’t find any Bush quote saying anything remotely like that claimed by Mr. Todorich.

“Remember what former Treasurer Paul O’Neill said: ‘Bush did nothing but talk about invading Iraq from his first day in office.’

[RWC] Bush critics like Mr. Todorich hang their hat on a statement O’Neill made during a CBS 60 Minutes interview saying President Bush had contingency plans for Iraq early in his administration. In a subsequent NBC interview, O’Neill said, “People are trying to make a case that I said the president was planning war in Iraq early in the administration. Actually, there was a continuation of work that had been going on in the Clinton administration with the notion that there needed to be regime change in Iraq. I’m amazed that anyone would think that our government, on a continuing basis across political administrations, doesn’t do contingency planning and look at circumstances.”

“Bush would want us to believe that the Iraqis were the terrorists who were involved in Sept. 11, 2001, when he clearly knew that al Qaida was responsible for the attacks.”

[RWC] If this is true, why did we attack al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan immediately after 9/11? We didn’t attack Iraq until more than 18 months after 9/11.

Neither President Bush nor VP Cheney ever claimed Iraq participated in 9/11. In fact, both men said repeatedly there was no evidence linking Iraq to 9/11. To the best of my knowledge, no other senior Bush administration officials made the claim either.

“As a result of this president’s lies, more than 1,000 Americans have died and more than 7,000 have been seriously wounded.”

[RWC] Based on what’s in Mr. Todorich’s letter, President Bush isn’t the liar.

The American dead and wounded aren’t the result of anything President Bush did. Terrorists are responsible. An August 2004 Pew poll asked the following question, “Might U.S. wrongdoing have motivated 9/11 attacks?” 51% of Democrats replied “yes.” Even in late September 2001 the figure was 40%. What is it with the “blame America first” crowd?

“We need to elect a president who is more honest with the American people.”

[RWC] The problem is not with President Bush’s honesty, it’s that President Bush doesn’t always tell people what they want to hear. On the other hand, Sen. Kerry tells every audience what it wants to hear. That’s why he has a record as a flip-flopper.